The Mark of a Disciple Stuart L. Brogden - Oct 2005
Who among us here today are truly disciples of Christ? What are the signs or marks of a disciple? Let’s turn to Luke 14:25 – 35.
“And there went great multitudes
with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate
not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters,
yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot
be my disciple. For which of you,
intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost,
whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish
it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and
was not able to finish. Or what king,
going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with
twenty thousand? Or else, while the
other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions
of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be
of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his
savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?
It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast
it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
In each of these provocative
statements, Jesus is telling his audience that He, Christ Jesus, must take
first place over everything and everybody else in a disciple’s life. The disciple of Christ must abandon himself
to the Lord Jesus or else he will find himself in the pit of sinful apathy – or
worse – without fail. When one loses
focus, grows weary, pities himself, he falls into the natural course of
sin. “Count the cost”, Christ tells
us. Make a deliberate decision to
follow Him, to be His disciple. As
recorded in John 4:4, Jesus was deliberate in traveling through Samaria – in
conflict with His culture and that of the Samaritans. An easier path would have been the normal route, around
Samaria. But the path of least
resistance makes both men and rivers crooked.
Consider the case of three teenagers, named Hananiah,
to Mishael, and Azariah. The king
ordered all his people to worship an idol and these boys were committed to
their God – not his – so they refused.
The king had the boys brought before him and told them to bow down to
the idol or be burned to death in the furnace.
These teenagers, you know them as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves
before you in this matter. If we are
thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it,
and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.
But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we
will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set
up." Nebby was committed. He threw the boys into the furnace. But God had a plan working that Nebby could
not see and did not anticipate, one that ultimately changed Nebby’s plans to
line up with God’s.
Mere commitment might have told them there were irreconcilable
differences between their religion and life itself. They could have rationalized this one
compromise, because commitments are made to be broken. But their commitment had been left behind;
they had surrendered their rights - abandoned their lives - to God and could
not go back. Regardless of the
outcome. That’s the line that we must
cross – leaving the future to God, obeying Him despite the consequences.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines abandon
as “To surrender one’s right; give up entirely. To yield oneself completely.”
Commitment is good, but in our language today, it
implies too much ongoing effort on our part.
It is too often bound up in circumstances that shift as sand on the
beach during a hurricane. As such,
commitment falls short, leaving us free to re-evaluate our decision and change
it as circumstances warrant. The call of Christ is for you and me to yield completely – no
turning back. And commitment cannot
take us as far as Christ would have us go in our walk. Like going to Europe – you can drive
yourself to the airport, but you will have to trust completely in the airplane
and its crew to get you across the ocean.
When a pastor calls upon you to make a commitment for
Christ, he’s telling you to abandon your life to Christ. Tom King says “God didn’t invade planet
Earth to change your life, He came to kill you!” Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after
me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25) You cannot accept His gift of salvation on your terms – with an escape
clause or an opportunity to bail out if times get tough. Life in Christ is complete - on His
terms. With His unconditional love,
Christ calls us to an unconditional surrender.
Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20 ”I have been crucified with Christ and I
no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who
loved me and gave himself for me.”
Nobody who was ever crucified lived.
And there’s no turning back. Is
your commitment strong enough to ensure you will never turn back? Mine isn’t and neither is yours. We’re men, our will is insufficient. As Dirty Harry puts it, “A man’s gotta know
his limitations.”
This is standard Jesus set
with His own life. Philippians 2:6-8 “Your
attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a
servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient to death - even death on a cross!” Yes, Christ was committed – perfectly. And there’s the rub – our commitments, and the efforts to keep
them, are imperfect.
What was so special about the
death of Christ that goes beyond commitment?
He was arrested and dragged all over town during the dead of night,
repeatedly beaten and mocked through six separate trails. Whipped 39 times with a whip of leather with
knots holding bits of bone or balls of lead.
Romans had scourging down to science, bringing the victim as close to
death as possible. The balls bruised,
the leather thongs cut open the bruises.
Continued beating tore into muscles, tearing them such that bleeding
flesh hung in quivering ribbons.
Arteries, veins and muscles were torn open, at times even entrails were
laid bare. Normally, a victim would
faint after two and half minutes.
How many of us would find a
way out of a commitment before we got to the whip? And He had yet to face the cross.
Prior to His arrest, Christ prayed "Father, if
you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be
done." Then He was led away,
beaten, and nailed to the cross.
Abandon: “To
surrender one’s right; give up entirely. To yield oneself completely.” Not my will, but His.
This is the standard, the call of Christ to men.
When Hernando Cortez landed
his Spanish fleet on the shores of Mexico in the spring of 1519, he considered
his mission too critical to quit. So when
the difficulties in the New World proved to be more than his crews envisioned,
he ordered them to burn the ships. It may be that he had heard the legend of a
Greek general who torched his ships so his army would not be tempted to retreat
in the heat of the battle. Whatever his
reason, Cortez took the commitment he and his men had made and turned it into
being completely yielded. No turning
back - abandoned to the mission.
What are you committed
to? If your commitment is to reform
your flesh – compelling yourself to bigger and better things – your focus is on
the wrong target and you will fail.
Your commitment, if you are to succeed, must be in Christ – plus
nothing. “Seek ye first the
kingdom of God…” “Be anxious for nothing
…” Not “Me first!” Where’s your
focus? Your commitment? Want success in the battle over your sinful
flesh? “Walk in the spirit and ye shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
Steven Curtis Chapman sings a
song in which he declares
Empty nets lying there at the water's edge, Told a story that few could believe. And none could explain how some crazy fishermen agreed to go where Jesus led. With no thought for what they would gain. For Jesus had called them by name - And they answered.
We
will abandon it all - For the sake of the call. No other reason at all but the sake of the call. Wholly devoted to live and to die - For the
sake of the call.
Not
for the sake of a creed or a cause. Not
for a dream or a promise. Simply
because it is Jesus who calls - And if we believe we'll obey.
1 Sam 15:22 “And Samuel said, "Has the LORD as
great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the
LORD? Surely, to obey is better than
sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.”